As much as the world is rapidly moving towards digital and therefore paperless operations, there is still a distinct space for tangible printed work, whether as a necessity or a preference. For students for instance, a large chunk of their coursework still requires printing and photocopying. For official work, there are still many offices and organizations out there for whom paperless alone cannot cut it and for homes, there are those who still prefer the sense of authenticity and permanence that printed paper offers.
Printer manufacturers are not only keeping up with these demands by making advanced printers, but also incorporating sustainability in their printer and ink technologies. One such printer is the Epson EcoTank L320, one among a range of printers that are clearly built for convenience, performance, sustainability and above all, cost cutting. Towards these, the printer ships out with advanced features like heat free technology that uses pressure as opposed to heat, and ink tanks in place of cartridges. For those of us who have dealt with cartridges for years, this is one major solution to a pain point that was our daily lives.
Ink tanks are easy to refill and and they hold much more ink to print thousands of pages on a single refill. We are looking at around 6,500 pages for black and 8,100 for color on the Epson EcoTank L320. Heat free printing saves on energy costs and is also a major milestone towards environmental protection.
The good people at Epson were kind enough to send the EcoTank L320 my way for review and I’ll be doing that in the next couple of days. But in the meantime, what’s in the box?
First we have the compact multifunctional Epson EcoTank L3210 with print, scan and copy functionalities, as well as borderless photo printing.
High capacity ink tanks as opposed to cartridges. These tanks are front facing for easy of refilling, and also mess free. In the box you get four bottles of 65ml each, and one extra one in black.
A comprehensive user guide on how to set up the printer, how to safely insert cartridges, and other functions on the printer functions.
An information booklet with important guidelines on disposal in an environmentally sound manner.
A software installation disc.
A custom made manufacturer cable.
As mentioned earlier, we shall be doing a comprehensive review at a later date after interacting more with the printer. In the meantime, read about sustainability efforts here, more so their role in education.